Brian and Nicola Shotton flew in from Newcastle, England, to see their team play in the Stanley Cup final.Kelsey McMillan/The Globe and Mail
Brian Shotton and his wife Nicola decided last Friday that they just had to be in Edmonton for the opening game of the Stanley Cup final to cheer on their beloved Oilers.
So, they booked a flight from their home near Newcastle, England, managed to score a pair of tickets for Wednesday’s game and booked a hotel room. Total outlay: more than $6,500.
“It sounds a bit soppy, but this is kind of like the ultimate dream, to come to a Stanley Cup final as an ice hockey fan, plus sharing it together,” Brian Shotton said during a stopover in Toronto on Tuesday before the couple boarded a connecting flight to Edmonton.
Shotton, 41, has been a hockey fan since childhood when he watched Newcastle’s team in the British hockey league. He started following the NHL in the mid-1990s and the Oilers were the first team he came across. “So, it kind of stuck,” he said.
Fans of the Edmonton Oilers are showing their support for the team as they skate into the Stanley Cup Finals. The Oilers won 4-3 against the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the finals.
The Canadian Press
He met Nicola, 41, at Newcastle’s games and they bonded over the sport. They married in 2007 and spent their honeymoon in Canada going to three Oilers games in Edmonton and a Maple Leafs game in Toronto. They’ve returned to Edmonton almost every year since to catch a game.
“It’s probably near 40 games I’ve seen them play,” Shotton said, adding that he and Nicola were in Edmonton twice this season.
“This is actually our first ever playoff game.”
Shotton who works for a community centre in Ashington, used to stay up late to watch the Oilers live on TV. He’s had to back off in recent years because of work commitments, but he’s been glued to his television throughout the playoffs this year even though some of the games started at 3 a.m. U.K. time.
His all-time favourite Oiler is Ryan Smyth, a fan favourite who played 15 seasons with the team starting in 1994. For this trip he brought three jerseys — two featuring current stars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and a throw-back jersey of Fernando Pisani, an Edmonton-born Oiler from 2002 to 2010.
He and his wife are convinced that the Oilers will win the series in six games. But if there is a Game 7 in Edmonton, they might just come back. “I wouldn’t rule it out,” he said before adding with a laugh: “I’ll possibly have to be looking at a remortgage on the house.”
For now, they’ve booked a hotel in Edmonton until Saturday, and they hope to buy tickets for Game 2 on Friday.
There aren’t many hockey fans in Ashington for the Shottons to hang out with. Hockey is a niche sport in the U.K. and there’s minimal coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the media.
There is a professional league — the Elite Ice Hockey League — that has 10 teams, and several universities have men’s and women’s clubs. Hockey teams from the University of Oxford and Cambridge University have been playing against each other since 1885.
But most hardcore fans like Russ Jericho watch the NHL from afar. He’s a been an Oilers fan since 1999 when a new British television channel began broadcasting North American sports.
“I was channel hopping one night looking for something to watch because I couldn’t sleep,” Jericho said from his home in Blackpool on England’s west coast where he works as a graphic designer. “And the Oilers were playing the Dallas Stars.”
Edmonton Oilers fans react in a fan zone during the first game of the Stanley Cup final.Amber Bracken/Reuters
He was captivated by the fast-paced action and the hard hitting, and he had a fondness for Edmonton as the birthplace of the Back to the Future star Michael J. Fox. “All that just sort of really turned me on, almost immediately, and I almost stopped following soccer the next day,” he said.
He’s been to Edmonton three times over the years but follows the team live on TV. He’s already tuned into 109 games this season, including the pre-season and the playoffs.
Jericho, 39, is also convinced the Oilers will triumph after last year’s heartbreaking loss in Game 7. “I think this year we’re deeper, we’re more experienced, and we’re more mature,” he said.
He’s booked a holiday trip to Edmonton later this month, a Christmas gift from his sister. He won’t be in town for any of the Stanley Cup games, “but I’ll be there for the parade.”
Over in Ireland, Pat Brennan fell in love with hockey during a trip to Edmonton in 2022 to visit relatives, including his brother-in-law who is an Oilers’ fan. He got hooked on the sport partly because of its similarities with the Irish game of hurling; which is also known for its physicality.
Edmonton’s games aren’t broadcast in Ireland so Mr. Brennan, 53, does his best to keep up online. “It’s just a matter of catching the highlights when I can,” he said from his home in County Laois, southwest of Dublin where he manages a warehouse.
He’s keeping close tabs on the action, and he’s got his fingers and toes crossed for luck. But he’s also quietly confident. “I just have a good feeling that they are going to do it this year,” he said.